Emma's Letter

Sometimes an old box is just a place to put stuff, and sometimes an old letter is just a bunch of words. But sometimes you find an old box, look inside, and find an old letter that gives you an emotional or spiritual connection to the past.
A couple of years ago, my aunt, Peggy Young, who lives in Chester, Utah, found a little old box in an old home there in Chester where some of our relatives used to live. The house was about to be torn down so she gave it one last search to make sure there was nothing of value left inside.

"I found this cool looking box but I didn't even open it. I didn't think there was anything in it," Peggy said.
She took the box home, put it in a closet, and forgot about it until one day her granddaughter, Kenadee Young, who was about 10 years old at the time, saw it and asked if she could look inside. "I told her to go ahead. Kenadee's the snoop at our house," Peggy said. There were empty envelopes and a few old cards inside that someone had saved for some long-forgotten reason.
But the real prize was a letter, written in Danish, dated 1947, and addressed to my great-great grandfather in Chester, from someone in Denmark. It had gone unnoticed for over 60 years. "I was flabbergasted," Peggy said. "I thought it was just an empty box."
She wanted the letter translated into English but didn't know anyone locally who spoke fluent Danish. She mentioned the letter to a co-worker, Gunnison, Utah resident Cindy Willden, who told her that Kirsten Olsen, also from Gunnison, could translate it.
Cindy graciously brought the letter to Kirsten, and Kirsten brought the letter to life. And we're all grateful for their efforts. "I really enjoyed this letter. It was fun to do," Kirsten said. "Some letters don't say much, but this one did."
"It was such an interesting little letter, and it told a lot," Peggy said. "So, I thought it was neat. Cindy said she cried when she read it, and I did too, just thinking how hard that woman had to struggle."
I spent some time with Kirsten and her husband Jorgen at their home in Gunnison one afternoon, talking about the letter and all things Danish- it was a great experience. (Although Jorgen and I nearly got carried away talking about soccer.) (Sad side note- Jorgen passed away last year. Nice, nice guy.) Translating letters and documents between Danish and English is a service Kirsten has provided many times. She's even translated letters for the family of famed artist C.C.A. Christensen.
Jorgen and Kirsten emigrated to the United States with their family from Denmark in 1980, first living in Salt Lake City for 18 years, then making their way here to the Gunnison Valley after some encouragement from Gunnison's own Ardean Anderson, who, as a young missionary in Denmark, converted the couple and their two children to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They've been in Gunnison for about 10 years now. "We love it here," Kirsten said.
Kirsten is already famous locally for knitting hats for each baby born at the Gunnison hospital. The number just reached eleven-hundred. In Salt Lake, Kirsten worked at the LDS Church offices, and Jorgen was a skilled engraver. I also learned that, in their younger years in Denmark, Jorgen was a talented gymnast, and Kirsten was one of the country's finest swimmers. Thanks to Kirsten, we discovered that the author of the letter is named Emma, and she was my great-great grandfathers niece. His name was Christian Larsen and he'd joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Denmark in the year 1897. The son of a Protestant Preacher, Christian was basically expelled from his own family after his conversion, and eventually moved to Utah with his wife and children, including his son (and my great-grandfather) Charly Larsen. The family settled in Chester, Sanpete County, Utah- my hometown.
My mother, Renee Larsen Peterson, has done a lot of research on the Christian Larsen family, but little is known of his brothers and sisters. None of our family here in Utah knew of Emma until this letter turned up. It was dated March 31, 1947, just two years after World War II ended. But all of Europe, including Denmark, continued to struggle after those five years of occupation and terror.
While the struggles and joys of folks in Denmark in 1947 were much different than ours today, they were also similar. People then relied on the same divine being for comfort and guidance as many of us do here, today.
I hope you don't mind if I share Emma's letter with you folks. A big "Thank You" to Cindy Willden, and Kirsten and Jorgen Olsen, for all your help.

Dear Uncle Christian-

One-thousand thanks for your letter. You do not know how happy I was for that. It was kind of you to answer that fast. Why didn't we start corresponding a long time ago? It would have been a joy for both of us. Thanks for your invitation, and believe me, if I didn't have my dear old mother, I would have come. I have always had a great wish to go abroad.
Only 18 years old I got married, same year we had a little girl, Tove, born Nov. 16, 1918. Again a little girl, Ida, born Nov. 6, 1920, another little girl, Ellis, born March 11, 1922. She died the same year August 30. A little boy, Feb. 12, 1925. He died the next year March 7. Then came my last child, Musse, June 5, 1929.
The years went by. God had called and taken from me what He wanted. After that I had no peace, always frictions and at last I could not take it anymore. Christmas Eve 1943 I made up my mind. I talked to God about it, and when I thought I heard His opinion and blessing all went well.
Even when I, with a bleeding heart, left the home that had been so dear, Jesus helped me through it all. My little girl and I moved to Aalborg and we have struggled. We have walked hand in hand, and she is my sunbeam and the best thing in the world for me. I felt it really difficult when I lost the two dear children, but my little Musse (that is what I call her) she has truly compensated for what the Lord took.
The two other daughters are different. Sweet girls but without love in their hearts. The city has taken them, they are in Copenhagen. Musse is a telephone operator, not far from Aalborg. We cannot be without each other.
I have told you about my job at one of the biggest newspapers in town. I am so happy for that job, and daily I give thanks for it. Moneywise, I have nothing to brag about. Believe me, dear uncle, when you are a single woman and have to pay all the bills and have started from the bottom when I was 43, then you have to struggle hard, but Jesus has helped me.
I am healthy and in a good mood. I am just afraid when the day comes when I cannot work anymore. What will be of me? I have my mother, but she is not well and that is another responsibility. My beloved Dad is in peace with Jesus. Mother is in a hospital, she sends her regards. She is waiting for a letter from you, dear Uncle. Please, write her soon.
Isn't it strange? It feels like we have known each other for a long time. What if I one day could go to America? Then I can drive with you in your car and see so many places. Would you like to see our little Denmark again? We have had such a hard time in our little country in those five vicious years. There is still pressure on us, there are many things we cannot get. We still have ration cards.
I believe you may be tired of all I am writing, but I will so much look forward to your next letter and remember to write my dear mother. I think she will come home after Easter. Love to you from Your Emma. Love also to my cousins.

Four Stars In The Window

(This story was published in the Gunnison Valley Gazette July 5, 2007)

Four Stars In The Window

Some people remember when they first heard the news that Japan had attacked the U.S. Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, drawing the United States into World War II. Laree Hammond was just nine years old then. She remembers more the day in 1945 when word reached Mayfield, Utah that the war was over. "I was home," Hammond said, "and I can remember my brother Gordon went out and got in his car, and up and down the road he went, honking the horn, and then everybody started. It was quite a celebration." Gordon, perhaps more than most, had a reason to celebrate.
In 1941, Mayfield was as quiet as it is today. Like most Americans, folks there were still trying to climb out of the grip of the Great Depression. "Nobody had much to eat, or much of anything, but we didn't know the difference. We were living fine," Hammond said.
But the men and women author Tom Brokaw defines as "The Greatest Generation" were about to be tested even further, and hardly anyone would be unaffected four years later. America's young men went to war- many of Mayfield's young men among them. "Everybody that was fit enough to go, they took them," Hammond said. They took four of Dean and Cora Anderson's five boys.
Dean and Cora raised seven children in Mayfield, including their youngest, Laree. Maurice was the oldest, followed by Matilda, Roy, Robbie, Gordon, and Edward. Another son, Linford, died as an infant. After the war began, Roy, Robbie, Gordon, and Edward were all drafted into the service. Maurice volunteered but was refused for medical reasons. The four servicemen survived the war but, in a cruel twist of fate, they'd gather with the rest of the family to bury Maurice in Mayfield in January, 1943, while the war raged on.
Roy was the second oldest boy, and just younger than sister Matilda. A Corporal in the Army Air Corp, he spent the war in England fueling and maintaining B-17 Bombers. He often felt like he wasn't doing his fair share since he wasn't on the front lines. But the fuel trucks he drove must have been tempting enemy targets.
He told stories of counting the bombers as they returned from missions. "He said that for each plane that's gone, that's ten of our boys that will never come back," Hammond said. "That's the thing that bothered him so much." Seeing the Statue of Liberty on his return was one of Roy's finest memories.
Robbie was an Army rifleman, called to duty in the Philippines and New Guinea. "He never talked much about his experiences there," Hammond said. Late in the war he was a cook at one of the bases in that area, and enjoyed it. "It was better than the front lines," Hammond said. He came home with a case of Malaria and fought it for years. Often, the attacks were bad enough to land him in the hospital.
Gordon was also an Army man. He was there as the Allied Forces landed in Italy and fought their way into France. He was wounded, patched up, and sent back to battle twice. The third time was different. Hammond still remembers when her parents got the telegram, the one that read "we regretfully report that your son has been critically wounded in action." There were no further details.
The family spent several frantic days trying to find out more. They didn't have a phone at the house, so Dean would go to the old Thompson Market in Mayfield every day to use theirs, trying to contact the Red Cross or anyone that may be able to provide information about his son. After nearly two weeks, they found out that Gordon was alive.
A month later he was back in the states, and arrived in Mayfield a couple months after that on leave, but he had to report for duty again before being discharged. The bullet that nearly killed him went through his body and lodged in his belt. He carried the slug on his keychain. "But he never did want to talk much about what had happened," Hammond said.
Edward was the youngest of the boys and just 15 when the war began. Eventually drafted into the Army, he was on a troop ship in the Pacific when the war ended. "They sent him into Japan and he talked about the devestation that our bombers had done to the cities," Hammond said. "They helped clean that up. He said the Japanese people were nice but it was an uncomfortable feeling being there."
That brings us back to Hammond's oldest brother, Maurice Anderson, who tried several times to sign up for military service but was refused due to a bad foot. "He wanted to go so bad," Hammond said. "He felt like he should be there with his brothers."
Prior to the war, Maurice served in the Civilian Conservation Corp, a Federal program that provided employment for young, single men in an effort to ease the effects of the Depression. During his stint with the CCC, he worked on several projects, most notably the tunnel at Zion National Park. He went on to find employment as a railroad worker.
On January 19, 1943, Maurice was working near Thistle, Utah, when he was hit by a train and killed. "It was a troop train, hauling soldiers, that hit him," Hammond said. Brothers Roy, Robbie, and Gordon- already in the service at the time- were granted emergency leave to attend his funeral and burial in Mayfield.
Laree was the youngest in the family, just nine years old when the war began. Her older sister, Matilda Anderson Jensen, had married Calvin Jensen and settled in Mayfield. They worried about their brothers and helped out their even more worried parents. They wrote letters to the boys, and they'd go to the mail every day, hoping for good news. "It took so long for us to get letters, and for our letters to get to them," Hammond said.
Any news about the war was hard to come by, much of it gathered at movie theaters. "We used to go to the shows when we were kids and they would show this war newsreel" Hammond said. "They'd show the boys fighting, and some of the things that were going on over there. That was our first news of what went on."
During the war, folks throughout the country displayed flags in their windows with a star for each family serviceman. Hammond says it seems like every house in Mayfield had at least one star, while the Anderson's had four. "It made me feel proud of my brothers," she said.
Hammond's granddaughter, Amelia Hammond, says the stars had meaning. "The blue stars mean they're on active duty," she said, "and the gold stars are for soldiers who have been killed."
Laree married Lowell Hammond and settled in Fayette, Utah, where they raised four boys- and where Laree still lives today. She says her brothers handled their lives "pretty well" after the war. "They came home and partied hearty for about five years," Hammond says. "Then they all settled down."
Those brothers have all passed away now, each laid to rest on the gentle slope at the peaceful Mayfield Cemetery, where they gathered to bury Maurice in 1943, when their own futures were so uncertain.
Thanks to Laree, Julie, and Amelia Hammond for their cooperation and assistance with this story.

(Story by Mitch Peterson, Gunnison Valley Gazette)

A Guard Story

This is a story I did for the Gunnison Valley Gazette, published on June 7, 2007. I'm happy to report that everyone made it home safely. I took the photos at the parade in Manti just before the Unit departed.

To the young men of the 145th: "You represent the very best and brightest that Sanpete County has to offer. As you go to Iraq you not only defend the values that we hold so dear but you bring the hope of freedom and a new life to millions of others. There is no nobler cause. Thank you for your courage and willingness to defend these things with your lives. We love and appreciate you. We know that you will honor yourself, your families, and all that you hold dear. Our prayers go with you. Sincerely, Bruce A. Blackham, Sanpete County Commissioner

Utah National Guard soldiers from the Gunnison valley and throughout Sanpete County reported for active duty Monday, June 4. Battery B of the 1st Batallion's 145th Field Artillery Unit, headquartered in Manti, Utah will train for several days there and at Camp Williams near Bluffdale, Utah then head to Fort Bliss, Texas for more specialized training before moving on to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.
It's the 145th's second deployment since September 11, 2001. Many of the same troops now deploying spent a year supporting Operation Noble Eagle in 2002-03. Their mission then was securing military facilities near Tooele. According to Utah National Guard spokesman Major Hank McIntire, this will be a more of a "detention operation."
"Good Luck" gatherings of support have popped up around the Gunnison valley, including a program in Fayette for that community's seven departing guardsmen, and a luncheon for unit members last week sponsored by ACT Composites in Gunnison.
John and Kathleen Bartholomew of Fayette, Utah have five grandsons serving in the military, and three of them- Jed, Jay, and Ben- are leaving with the 145th. "The way the town has rallied around them, it's just wonderful," Kathleen says. "We're very proud of them. We're not just proud of our grandkids, we're proud of the whole unit."
"We hate to see them go," John said, "but we realize that's part of it and we'll make the best of it."
Jed and Jay are the sons of Scott and Lila Bartholomew; Ben is the son of Keith and Delene Bartholomew. A sense of duty runs in the family. Jed and Jay's sister Lisa just graduated with honors from Gunnison Valley High School. "She had so many scholarship offers," grandmother Kathleen says, "but she decided she wanted to stay close to home and help out on the farm, so she's going to Snow College."
Lisa says she's sad to see her brothers leave. "But what they're doing is important, and i'm really proud of them," she said.
Lila says her twenty year old son Jay was preparing to serve a mission for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when word came that the 145th would deploy. Jay told her that his duty at this time is with the Guard. It's that kind of attitude that boosts Lila's spirits. "There are a lot of ups and downs," she says. "But the boys are so positive, and that helps me out."
Scott echoes Lila's feelings. "I'm okay with it and i'm proud of them, but at the same time I have concerns," he said.
Jay says it will be great to have his brother Jed and cousin Ben along and understands how his family feels. "It's hard on the families," Jay said. "But it's a good thing to serve my country and defend freedom. And I have confidence in the guys I serve with." The family is on hand to help out Jed's wife Mandy and their two year old son Taylor.
Jay also says it'll be good to have an experienced soldier like Centerfield's Brady McDonald on this mission. This is McDonald's third tour of duty. He was in Tooele with the 145th, and served in Iraq with the 148th Field Artillery. He didn't have to go this time, but volunteered anyway.
"Its hard to explain," McDonald said. "A lot of it is that there's something pretty special about these guys. I told them that if they went, i'd be back. They're some of my best friends. Actually, they're like my other family. It would be hard to be there with negative people, but I feel comfortable with what we're doing and i'm confident in the guys i'll be serving with."
During his first mission to Iraq, McDonald saw a lot of the country. In the Kirkuk area, his unit supplied Iraqi's in charge of guarding oil pipelines as part of the Oil Security Batallion, helping them get things like boots, radios, and other equipment.
In Tikrit, McDonald's unit helped secure running water and medical supplies until the Iraqi's became more independent there. In another area, his unit monitored the Iran-Iraq border; in another they provided security for convoys from Kuwait.
The hardest part of the mission for McDonald is being away from his family- wife Kayla and his kids, three year old Hadlee and four month old Houston. But he's grateful for the folks in the valley. "I'd like to thank the people of the community," he said. "Everyone has been so supportive and understanding. It's been great."

There's a unit fireside for the troops and their families in Manti Sunday night at the LDS stake center there. Gunnison Stake President Curtis Anderson will deliver a message of support. "As a community, we pledge to support their families so they can serve with confidence," Anderson says.

Here are a few comments gathered from local folks over the last few days:
"My brother Jayde is going. Good luck to him and all my friends. Stay safe." -Tyler Christiansen, who's in the guard himself, serving with the 1457th Engineering Batallion.
"Good luck to all the guys. My brother Craig (Brown) is going." -Maren Brown
"We fully support the boys. Our son-in-law, Rick Lynn, has been over there twice. So we're behind them all the way." -Karen Jensen. Karen's husband Mardy says Rick did a tour in Afghanistan, then came home for nine months before going to Iraq. He's due home in September.
"I'd like to tell you all good luck." -Brooke Allred
"I want to tell you good luck also. And I pray for your families." -Janette Desersa
"Good Luck. We love you. We're behind you 100 percent and look forward to your return home soon." -Kristine Jensen
"We wish you the best. We're thinking about you, we love ya, and come home safe." -Janell Braithwaite
"We're proud of your sacrifice and your efforts. We look forward to seeing you all after a successful tour of duty." -Bret Ashton,
"I'm proud of you for serving our country. I wish you a lot of luck. I hope things go well for you and i'm looking forward to seeing you back home safe." -Kirk Anderson
"We've got the greatest soldiers here. We're proud of you and we wish you well." -State Senator Darin Peterson of Nephi, who finds himself suddenly more involved since his daughter is dating a member of the unit.

Note: Thanks to you folks for your comments and for supporting the troops. And thanks to Sanpete County Commissioner Bruce A. Blackham for his powerful opening statement.

Found My Hat

I was out and about earlier today (Mar. 7, '09) walking through some sagebrush flats. Found a forgotten knit hat i'd lost a couple weeks ago in the same area. I'm thinking that if I keep walking long enough, i'll eventually find all the stuff i've lost over the years. But that's a lot of walkin'. There's a photo of the hat above, and also a photo of a two cloud I saw yesterday near Spring City, Utah. I was northbound on Highway 89 near the Five-Mile Junction, looking northeast and snapped the photo. I looked around but couldn't see any other numbers in the sky. The photo of the hat is just as I found it, all tangled up in a sagebrush. Update May 12, 2009- Ironically, or coincidentally, I lost my other knit hat a couple weeks later and still haven't found it. So for now, no back up hat.